A patient at a Seattle mental hosptial bit off another patient's nose and threw a cup of coffee in his face for "running his mouth" at dinnertime Saturday, according to the Seattle Police Department.

According to the police report, the suspect and victim were on the second floor of Navos Mental Health Solutions in Delridge around 5:40 p.m. when they got into a fight.

While neither the suspect nor the victim, who have been at Navos for nine days and three days respectively, has had any previous behavioral problems, staff at the hospital think the two knew each other outside the facility and the conflict stemmed from that.

According to the report, the suspect attacked the victim after accusing him of "running his mouth" and bit off a large portion of his nose. When the victim fell to his knees, the suspect reportedly threw a cup of coffee in his face.

Following the attack, the suspect was immediately cooperative with staff and went with them to a seclusion room.

The victim's nose was collected and given to firefighters, who took him to Harborview Medical Center.

Officers declined to arrest the suspect, despite the nurse supervisor's demands that he be taken into custody.

The responding officer argued that the suspect was already in a seclusion room in a secure mental-health facility. Arresting the potentially violent and mentally ill suspect would only put officers, the suspect and staff in danger, according to the report. In addition, the responding officer said King County Jail is ill equipped to deal with mentally ill offenders, and the suspect would only be returned to Navos.

Instead, the officer documented the incident for possible assault charges and sent it to the Crisis Intervention Team for review.